Bitter Dregs

Monday rolls around once again and since we're in the midst of the frenzied buying season, we get more big new releases and box sets. The studios are really going gangbusters with box sets this year. Just wandering through Costco's limited DVD selection reveals a number of tempting sets, including the Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition, which I got for my birthday recently. This megaset includes 10 films with good bonuses and some really fun lobby card/press kit reproductions. I have yet to sample the movies, but the presentation of this material is really classy. Not all the DVD box sets go to this length, but some real effort is going into these sets on classic film, which is great to see. And now on to this week's DVDs:

The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Final Season And if you're an ultimate Griffith fan, you can get the whole run of the show in one box set.

Barnyard Yes, yet another talking animal CG celebrity-voiced movie. One amusing quote from a review: "Barnyard is nothing so much as The Lion King chewed in a cud and digitally regurgitated."

Bugsy: Extended Edition The 1991 Beatty/Levinson film gets an extra 15 minutes of footage and some new bonus features.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - Four-Disc Extended Edition Disney takes a cue from New Line/Peter Jackson and issues a 4 DVD Extended Edition. More effects scenes and a lot of bonuses tempt the repeat buyer. Like other franchises, I would expect this stuff to be reissued again in HD formats as well as part of future larger box sets when the series is complete.

Dean Martin Double Feature Sony issues two of Dino's films on one DVD: : Who Was That Lady? and How To Save A Marriage (and Ruin Your Life). DVD Savant reviews this set here.

The Devil Wears Prada I thought this was actually pretty good; worth seeing once for Streep's performance alone, even if the ending bugged me a bit.

The Doors: 15th Anniversary Edition This mediocre film gets a DVD upgrade.

The Fox and the Hound 2 Another Disney direct-to-DVD movie...

Full House - The Complete Fifth Season You know, I was contemplating canceling my Netflix subscription to justify playing World of Warcraft, but if I did that, I'd miss classics like this!

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete First Season I know a lot of you've been waiting for this!

The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 3 and Volume 4 Sony/MGM concludes the Bond box sets with the good and bad films mixed together in each set (yes, you have to buy all four boxes to get all the Connery films).

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - The Second Year

Stacked - The Complete Series Now here's a family classic!

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Will Ferrell haters beware!!! This one is also being released in both Blu Ray and HD-DVD so you can loathe Will in high definition.

Will Rogers Collection, Volume 2 This set includes: Ambassador Bill (1931), Too Busy to Work (1932), Mr. Skitch (1933), and David Harum (1934).

World Trade Center.

OK, a couple of notes:

First, we watched Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) the other night, not having seen it in a while. I'd forgotten how subversive this show actually is! The themes, accepting those who are different (red nose, gay dentist elf), material wealth not being the key to happiness (the socialist snowman), and even the worst in society can be reformed (with some dental work) aren't exactly standard "family values" material. And why is the doll on the Island of Misfit Toys, anyway? Pretty fun.

Also, DVD Savant has two new reviews of stuff that came out recently: Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume One and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Both are quite interesting and worth a read.